Mall shooting victims ID’d as police investigate motive

ALLEN, Texas (NewsNation) — Days after a shooting at a mall in Texas left eight dead, authorities are looking into the suspect’s possible motive, including indications of neo-Nazi sympathies found on his social media accounts.

The assailant was confirmed by NewsNation sources Sunday as 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia. He was fatally shot by a police officer who happened to be near the suburban Dallas mall, law enforcement officials said.

Federal investigators so far have found early indications of neo-Nazi ideologies in Garcia’s online activity, authorities say.

One investigator revealed that at the time of the shooting, Garcia was wearing a patch on his chest reading “Right-wing death squad,” a popular phrase among white supremacy groups.

During the shooting, Garcia fired off more than 100 shots using an AR-15-style rifle. More guns and ammunition were also found at the crime scene.

Two of the eight victims were identified as 20-year-old Christian LaCour, a security guard at the mall, and 27-year-old Aishwarya Thatikonda, who as reported by CNN was visiting the mall with her friend. Texas DPS also identified 37-year-old Kyu Song Cho, 35-year-old Cindy Cho and 32-year-old Elio Cumana-Rivas as victims.

The other three victims’ names were not released but were identified as an 11-year-old girl, an eight-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy. Besides the victims who were killed, seven others were injured during the attack and are being treated at local hospitals.

Steven Spainhauer, a former police officer, was shopping with his son at the mall when the shooting occurred. He told NewsNation that he tried to perform life-saving measures on several victims, but many of them were unsuccessful.

Spainhauer was able to get one child out of harm’s way successfully.

“I found a second victim that was already expired. I tried to do CPR on a third victim and he passed at the same time,” Spainhauer said.

He continued, “I then found a 4 or 5-year-old crawling out from under the victims and started wandering around, asking for help from his mama. I took him to the side. He was the first victim I got out with police officer assistance who showed up a few seconds later.”

Spainhauer said he will never forget the look on the first police officer’s face when he showed up at the scene.

Allen, the city where the shooting took place, is about 25 miles north of downtown Dallas. With a population of about 105,000 residents, it is among the Dallas-Fort Worth area’s diverse suburbs.

Editor’s note: Texas DPS previously announced Christian LaCour was 23. He was 20.